When The Truth Lies
by Shade Embry
Summary: After Doggett's return, his old partner fled, feeling responsible. It will take deception for Doggett to get her back, but he needs her back, and he needs the truth. Sequel to Night He Fell Away From Me.


Small note here: this is the third story in the series  
that began with "The Night He Fell Away From Me." The  
second part, "Change The Stars For Me," I haven't yet  
finished, but I was struck with inspiration on this  
third part and got it finished. It shouldn't spoil  
much from the second story for you. If anything, it  
may just make you want to know exactly what happens in  
that second story *evil laughter*.  
  
TITLE: When The Truth Lies  
AUTHOR: Brittany "Thespis" Frederick  
E-MAIL: baltimorelt@yahoo.com  
SPOILERS: To be safe, all of Season 8 in general  
RATING: PG for language  
CATEGORY: Doggett/Other friendship/partnership  
SUMMARY: "The truth hurts sometimes, but you know  
what, wounds heal!" he insisted, his anger boiling  
over. She was unmoved. "Maybe the ones I made, but  
what about the ones I inflicted by making them?"  
DISCLAIMER: All nonoriginal content belongs to Chris  
Carter, 1013, and FOX. Agent Stark Patrick and all new  
content/ideas et cetera belong to me and I'm proud of  
it. Archive's okay, with my permission.  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This fic is the third in the trilogy  
which began with "The Night He Fell Away From Me" and  
"Change The Stars For Me." If you've not read those  
prior to reading this, you'll want to do so, as this  
fic is heavily dependent on the events of those.   
DEDICATION: To Chey, who suggested the idea for a  
Doggett/Stark post-S8 reunion fic, and thus allowed me  
to do a lot of things I've wanted to do with our  
heroes at the same time while layering their  
relationship once more. Thanks for the idea!  
RECOMMENDED LISTENING: "It's Over" by Brad Fiedel.  
  
He hurt you so the rumor goes  
Time to run again  
You're going home  
See you walking in like a ghost  
His advice was really something  
"Stay dead, don't feel no pain, girl"  
You're making progress  
Headfirst through rolling thunder  
In his life you're really something  
Restlessness won't leave the blind...  
- Eva Trout, "Drivetime Radio"  
  
The last words she had said to him, even though he  
couldn't hear her, were "I'm sorry." And she still  
was, walking the old corridors of the Hoover Building  
in the dead of night one more time. If he were here,  
she would apologize for this whole year, but he  
couldn't possibly be. Which was better, because she  
knew she'd broken his heart, and he had broken hers,  
silently but definitively. It was the best for both of  
them that they did not meet this night, that the only  
person she came in contact with was Dana Scully.  
  
Dana Scully, partner to Fox Mulder, who the news had  
it had been abducted not long after he'd helped to  
find John, who now sought her partner as desperately  
as Stark Patrick had sought hers. Scully, who now  
worked with John in this basement. Scully, who'd found  
her partner dead rather than alive as Stark had been  
lucky to do, but who had been reunited with him  
against all odds. Scully, who had asked for Stark's  
help when she couldn't give it to her. Scully, who had  
told her not to run, but she hadn't listened. Scully,  
who had been responsible for providing the medical  
ingenuity that quite possibly saved John's life.  
Scully, who against all odds had survived it all, and  
had tried to get Stark to see that she could do the  
same. And Scully who now needed her attention, a year  
down the line.  
  
She knocked once, then stepped into the darkened  
basement office of the X-Files section. Closed her  
eyes for a moment, remembered when she'd been a year  
younger, terrified but factually convinced that aliens  
were behind her partner's abduction, standing in the  
same doorway appealing to Mulder and Scully to help  
her find that out. And now she was a year older,  
though maybe not wiser, standing in this doorway after  
she'd fled the scene of her crime of the heart and  
said she was never coming back again.  
  
Truth be told, the Baltimore field office wasn't that  
bad. She knew the neighborhood, she knew the people,  
and her friends in city homicide would back her up at  
a second's notice. But walking into the office,  
calling for Agent Scully, she knew that this place,  
which she'd worked for all her life and cherished in a  
part of her heart she no longer allowed herself to  
think about, was more special to her than even Charm  
City.  
  
"You might want to close the door," he said simply.  
  
She turned instantly. She knew that voice. She could  
never forget that voice. The voice that had given  
support and encouragement to her hopes, dreams and  
desires, that had debated with her on important  
issues, that had shown her things that she now relied  
on day in and day out, that had been the voice of God  
in her impressionable youth. The voice of her partner.  
  
"John," she said softly, the name still coming  
instantly after all this time.  
  
He smiled at her, putting down the case file he was  
skimming. "I was beginning to think you weren't  
coming."  
  
"Where's Agent Scully?"  
  
"Home for the evening." He leaned forward, met her  
eyes as he was always doing when they had been  
partners. "There's no Hanson case, Stark. Just you and  
me."  
  
"But why..."  
  
"Why? Because you're my partner. And because you  
didn't even say goodbye."  
  
She paused, her breath caught in her throat. So he  
knew. Who had told him? Scully, the only witness to  
her flight from his hospital room to the airport?  
Jones and Edson, her former partners in crime? Or  
someone else? Had it even been Kersh, the entire  
reason for this whole mind game?   
  
"You would have convinced me to stay."  
  
"Is that some horrible crime? Come on, Stark..."  
  
"I had no choice."   
  
The words were hard to force out. She didn't want to  
defend herself to John, explain herself to John,  
vindicate herself to John. He trusted her. But she had  
violated that, hadn't she, by running? And now,  
looking at him, she felt as if she didn't know him  
anymore. But maybe he felt the same way.  
  
He stood from the desk chair and went to shut the  
door. "I get out of a freakin' coma and you're the  
first person I want to see, but no one seems to know  
where the hell you are. Then I find out I'm assigned  
to find Mulder and you took a freakin' transfer to the  
Baltimore field office while I was out." His eyes  
betrayed his sadness as he took her hand in both of  
his and they bored into hers, for the first time since  
they had first met four years ago making her  
uncomfortable. "That's not goodbye, Stark," he said  
quietly, wounded, almost. "We deserve more than that  
from each other."  
  
We? Was there even a 'we' anymore? She doubted it. He  
had Scully. What did he need her for? She'd deserted  
him. She had zero credibility. And just like that, as  
if he'd remembered, his voice turned hard again.  
  
"Kersh wanted you with me on the task force," he told  
her. "He wanted you to help me lead it. Said we were  
the team he'd had his eyes on for a while to do big  
things like that. And then he said you'd come to him  
when you found out and requested to be taken off the  
detail. You wanted to go to Baltimore. You said you'd  
be more useful there.  
  
"What the hell was that about? I could have used you,  
Stark. I needed you. Screw Baltimore. They didn't give  
a damn about you when we were there..."  
  
"They'd just had a shooting. Complicated by members of  
the Bureau."  
  
"That's not the point. You weren't homicide anymore  
and you were out of the loop. I saw the way they  
treated you. They may back you up for old time's sake,  
but that's not your world anymore. That's not your  
world..."  
  
"You're right."  
  
"What?" He seemed genuinely surprised.  
  
"You're right," she repeated softly, meeting his eyes.  
"You were."  
  
His expression softened again, but his voice remained  
serious. "Don't say that unless you mean it."  
  
"I've always meant it, John." She wiped mist from her  
eyes. "That's one thing that will never change."  
  
"Why'd you run? Why did you ask for it? Without even  
saying goodbye?"  
  
"Because you would have convinced me to stay. Because  
Kersh wanted to use me against you. I'm one of the few  
agents on his good side. I knew when he put us on  
Mulder's case it was a setup. He knows you were part  
of that, John, he thought that he could get you to  
sink yourself into this basement and stay out of his  
way. Because he knew you weren't going to play his  
games. And he thought that I would. And eventually I  
would have been forced to. And I wouldn't do that to  
Scully, to Mulder, to you. Not to you."  
  
"It didn't stop me, Stark. I'm still here. And I don't  
think I'm leaving."  
  
"I had to give you the chance." She was really losing  
it now, and it frustrated her, because even he had  
seemed to frost over against her. "You deserve that  
much from me. I didn't want to stab you in the back  
even if I didn't mean to."  
  
"There's always another way."  
  
She finally met his eyes, and this time when she did  
she couldn't help from crying. "I couldn't take that  
chance. Not with your future. I figured you could  
better stand to lose me than your entire career. You  
want to be here, John."  
  
"And so do you. What happened to idealism, two years  
ago, in the car? You worked your way up here. This is  
what you always wanted."  
  
"I'd rather live knowing I cost myself my dream than  
that I cost you yours." She was trying desperately not  
to be weak. She had never wanted to appear weak in  
front of him, not even after he had proved to her it  
was all right to be, not even after she had let down  
her guard with him. Because she believed that weakness  
proved she was not ready. That she wasn't worthy of  
being his partner. And maybe that was true this time.  
  
He took her by the shoulders and locked eyes with her,  
speaking each word as a statement of fact. "Listen to  
me. Don't ever think that." He paused. "We found  
Mulder anyway. It's over. It's done. Come back to me."  
  
"I don't deserve that." She shook her head. "What I  
did may not have been right, but I have to live with  
it. It's all I knew how to do."  
  
"Run away?"  
  
She nodded. "From my mother, from my sister, from one  
career to another, from one place to another ... from  
you ... it's all I've ever had in life."  
  
"You can change that." He sighed. "I can't do this  
alone, these X-Files, all of this. Scully is ... she is  
a phenomenal woman. But I need someone who maybe  
doesn't believe so easily. I need the person that's  
always been there for me, who knows me. I need you  
back with me."  
  
"Kersh would..."  
  
"I don't give a damn what Kersh thinks anymore. Right  
now, we're talking about you and me."  
  
She wiped another round of tears away. "Why do you  
care so much?"  
  
"Because you never gave me a reason not to." He  
paused, making sure she understood he meant every  
word. "Because from the moment I met you, you showed  
me you were here as a serious agent. Because you have  
always displayed the best characteristics in a human  
being. You showed me things I wish that I could be ...  
and you proved to me that I could be better. Because  
you have never, ever, run from anything. Because you  
were always there and I never had to ask. Because I  
respect you and cherish you as my partner, as my best  
friend, and as a person. What will it take you to  
realize that?"  
  
"I've always realized it. I just ... I don't think I'm  
the person you knew."  
  
"I know that you're not. You don't have to be. All you  
have to be is who you are. To say I haven't changed  
since this happened is a complete and total lie. I  
can't expect that you haven't changed, too. I know you  
have. I can see it in your eyes."  
  
She tore herself away from his gaze. "I can't."  
  
He looked at her like she was crazy and she saw the  
thunder in his eyes. She prepared herself for being on  
the reception end of his rage, which had never  
happened before, and his words stung her more than  
anything else she had ever experienced. "The truth  
hurts sometimes, but you know what, wounds heal!" he  
insisted, his anger boiling over.   
  
She was unmoved. "Maybe the ones I made, but what  
about the ones I inflicted by making them?"  
  
John simply stared at her with an expression on his  
face that broke her heart. She could read it in his  
eyes, and she always had been able to. The expression  
that he didn't understand. That he didn't believe. And  
that he didn't know who she was anymore.   
  
Stark looked at the floor, unsuccessfully fighting  
back tears.  
  
"We never... We never did this when we were here. You  
never even raised your voice to me. What's happened to  
us, John?"  
  
He shrugged. "Things change."  
  
She nodded, then started past him, for the door. "This  
has to end. For both of us."  
  
He grabbed her by the arm as she passed, turning to  
face her as he held her back, taking her hand. "Don't  
do this, Stark. Don't do it again." Even in the dim  
light, she could see his eyes shimmering, and the  
hurt, pleading expression on his face that hurt her so  
badly. "I'm asking you. Please. Don't walk out of my  
life."  
  
Stark looked at him for a moment, surprised that he  
had gone this far to convince her after the year of  
pain she had put him through. "Are you sure?" she  
asked him quietly. "That this is what you want?"  
  
"I couldn't stay angry with you forever." Pause. "I  
found out along the way that the more I fought with  
you, the more I fought with myself."  
  
"I ... I can't believe this." She started to cry again,  
and this time he took her into his arms, holding her  
while she cried, her head rested on his shoulder, her  
voice breaking. "After all I've done to hurt you..."  
  
"And everything you've done for me," he said quietly.  
"Tell Kersh you want to come back. Tell me you're  
coming home."  
  
Home. God, the word sounded so right.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't ... don't apologize." He pulled back to look at  
her, perhaps knowing that those were the last words  
she'd said before she walked away, perhaps not. "Don't  
ever apologize to me."  
  
She nodded her understanding, still struggling with  
the emotions inside of her. He understood exactly how  
she felt; he felt the exact same way. In their hearts,  
they could not ever have been more alike. And that  
moment, they were as one. There was no better feeling.  
  
"I can't live my life like this," he said quietly. "I  
need you with me."  
  
"Until the next time..."  
  
"There won't be a next time," John insisted. "I can't  
live without you."  
  
She wiped away tears. "We can't live without each  
other."  
  
He smiled at that, like he'd never smiled in the past  
year. His abduction, Mulder's abduction, Scully's  
pregnancy, Krycek's death, suddenly none of the events  
of that past year really mattered anymore. He could  
close that chapter of his life and return to the way  
he knew it was meant to be. And he looked in her eyes  
and saw her thinking those same thoughts. The true  
union of partners. The one thing they could never  
break, no matter how far she flew, no matter how much  
he raged, the unspoken connection.  
  
And he looked at her, realizing how much he missed her  
in that past year, allowing himself to cry, to be  
overtaken by his emotions. Realizing how much of a  
fixture she was in his life, along the hard road and  
the edenic passageways, how much he had come to need  
her. Knowing that that particular sword was certainly  
double-edged. But more used as a shield. To protect  
all they had worked for.  
  
Like the chance to be together again.  
  
He leaned down and kissed her for one brief moment,  
tender and charged with all the emotion they had  
divided between them, feeling what it was like to live  
again. Stepping out of the darkness into the light.  
And their lives - conjoined as they were - began  
again.  
  
"It's over, John."  
  
"I know."  
  
END  
  
  
=====  
"Oh, for God's sake, please be somebody else."  
- Lewis Black  
Natalie: Two guys have ascended 5 miles into the sky. They walked up a wall of ice and are preparing to knock on the door of heaven itself. There's really no end to what we can do. You know what the trick is?   
Dan: What?   
Natalie: Get in the game!   
- "The Quality of Mercy at 29K", "Sports Night" 


End file.
